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Ireland: Its a French affair in Kildare

Buyers are set to fall in love with an 18th-century cottage built by the Huguenots  and one will pay at least 500,000, writes Kathy Foley

September 21 2003, 1:00am, The Sunday Times

Investment in, and ownership of, land was a Huguenot tradition and one that thousands brought to Ireland in the late 17th century as they fled religious persecution in France. The Huguenots were Calvinists, mainly drawn from the French middle and upper classes, and were barely tolerated by the Catholic leaders of France. As a result, many came to Ireland, where Protestant newcomers were welcomed by the British hierarchy.

Almost 300 years later, Rose Cottage, one of those Huguenot houses in the village of Rathmore, Co Kildare, has been placed on the market with a guide price of €500,000 and is due to be auctioned in three weeks’ time. The four-bedroom house, covering about 2,000 sq ft, has been fully renovated over the past 3½ years…

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